5 Tips to Avoiding a Security Breach

1 week ago

by Kevin Gardner

Security breaches at the workplace can be a
nightmare for the entire staff. While it’s not guaranteed that you will never
experience a security breach, there are several ways that you can minimize the
chances of a breach with some simple steps.

Educate
Your Staff

Start by educating all of your work place
staff. Human error can be to blame for a lot of accidental breaches in
security, but it can be reduced. Explain to your employees the importance of
protecting all sensitive information. Employees need to know the importance of not opening
suspicious links or downloading music or videos that might give criminals a
chance to breach information. All employees should know how to identify
phishing emails and websites.

It is a good idea for each employee to have to
go through a training class before they begin employment and periodically
during their employment to keep them fresh on company policy about protecting
information. Have a system in place where an employee can report any suspicious
links or behavior that they find.

Have
Guidelines for Passwords

Every employee should have their own set of
login credentials to keep information safe. Enforcing guidelines on passwords across the
workplace will make it harder for any security breaches in the workplace.
Require that all passwords have some type of complex formula such as symbols,
capital letters or special characters. Also be sure that employees have to
change their passwords a certain number of times per year.

Limit
Employee Access to Information

Not every employee should have access to
everything. Give an employee only the access that they need to properly do
their jobs and prevent access from the rest. This prevents to many people from
having too much sensitive information.

If employees have any work devices that can be
taken out of the office such as laptops or cellphones, they should always be
secured with tracking and encryption. Once these items leave the office, the
risks are higher that information can be stolen.

Have an
Antivirus Program

Every computer in the workplace should have a
good antivirus program installed and it should be updated regularly. An
antivirus program will help control and regulate any online threats.
Additionally, you can also find an advanced managed detection response provider.
An MDR provider detects and responds to threats in security of your data. This
will give you an extra layer of security from an outside source that may have
otherwise been overlooked by an employee or IT department.

Have A
PR Team in Place

Even the most reputable companies can have an
unexpected data breach. In that case, it’s important that you have a plan
already set in place to immediately break the news to customers. It’s a good
idea to have a public relations team to come up with a plan in the event that
there is a security breach within the business. The PR team can have a strategy
for the best way to get the news out to customers or anyone who is affected by
the breach. They will also come up with a general statement that can be made in
the event that it happens to give to news outlets and the general public.

The most important thing to remember is to
announce the breach immediately so that you can prevent any further data from being
stolen.

Security breaches are a very serious matter
and a hassle for all involved. Follow these simple steps to prevent any
security breaches in your business. But in the event that it does happen,
you’ll already have a plan in place to tackle the situation.